Is DVC right for me?
 

I am not a 7 month advance planner when it comes to my Disney vacations. I live in Florida, so I usually decide to go and then travel within 1-3 months. I am contemplating DVC and was wondering if there is any way to make less advance reservations and still be successfull with DVC? We usually stay in the deluxe hotels and we just stayed last week at AKV in the one bedoorm villa (very nice) and I am now thinking that we will always need a one bedroom villa since we are now spoiled. We have annual passes to the parks and want to use them as much as we can, so are last minute trips "doable" with DVC? Also, if I buy points at multiple resorts, lets say AKV 100 and BLT 100, etc., can I book a trip for 200 points all at one time, or do they have to be seperate. After reading al the posts, I think if I buy it will be resale, but are there any more restrictions for resale vs. direct when it comes to booking 30-60 days out (if that is even possible)?

Hello and Welcome!
Yes, if you buy multiple resorts, say AKV and BLT each 100 points, you can combine them at the 7 month mark and closer. It may be easier if they are titled the same and under the same Use Year.

If you don't intend to reserve with your 11 month advantage I wouldn't bother buying at either of those resorts. Go with what's cheapest with less expensive dues. SSR for instance. If you want to go multiple times a year on short notice then you may have to "settle" for SSR and OKW, maybe even AKV since they are the largest resorts. You may be lucky occasionally with BLT, BWV, BCV but wouldn't count on it at busy (for DVC) times.

It may work for you since you live in state and don't need to look for cheap airfare or complicated travel.

Good luck with your research!

Depending on when you plan to go, 1-3 months out may not get you anything at all. DVC is a timeshare, not a hotel, so members book their home resorts at 11 months out and non-home resorts at 7 months out. That means when you try to book at 1-3 months out, you get what is left. That might mean one night here, another night there and another night at a third resort. You are more than likely not going to get any stay longer than a night or two. And some nights might not even be available.

There are not a lot of non-busy times for DVC any more. Any inventory that remains at 60 days out is turned over to Disney Reservation Center to sell for cash. If it hasn't been sold when you call to book, they might be able to pull back any inventory that hasn't been sold already.

Home resort points are good at 7-11 months out. All points are equal at 7 or fewer months. So 100 BLT points are good for BLT 7-11 months out and not AKV at 7-10 months out.

Personally, I don't think you are a good candidate for DVC.

DVC works best for those who can plan more than 7 months in advance.

It can work for shorter notice vacations if you are flexible regarding resort, villa size, view and dates. 1 Bedrooms tend to be available for short notice bookings more often than studios or 1 bedrooms.

Since you like to do the 1- 3 month notice vacations, my advice is to rent points before you get too serious about purchasing.. You will get a good idea of availability for the times you might like to travel.

I can not think of a situation where buying DVC is reasonable for short notice planning of 1-3 months. That's not to say some can't be successful doing this, just that the risks are too great to make it reasonable. I would strongly encourage anyone looking at DVC to avoid such a commitment in this situation.

In your situation living close to WDW. You may be better off signing on with David's or the Timeshare store to recieve their point rental email. They have points that are close to expiring (1 or 2 months away) that you can get for 8 dollars a point.

So it is possible to book something 1 month out ?????

Yes, it's possible. You just have to be prepared to take what is available, usually SSR and/or OKW.

Late last October we booked 2 nights at BLT for Jan (couldn't pass that up, wanted more but nothing ever popped up) got 3 more nights at SSR, waitlisted 2 more. Added 2 more nights at OKW on the front end. In total we had a 9 night stay and it was all pieced together within a 2 month period.

People cancel all the time. If you can be flexible and get there without much hassle this could work well, for locals especially.

It's certainly possible to do so at times, however, the risks that it won't work out are far too high to make buying for this purpose a reasonable choice. Sometimes nothing is available, sometimes it's not the preferred choice.

What I would maybe suggest is buying a smallish contract and try to use that for stays that you can book before 7 months. For instance, if you typically go at a certain time of year, buy a contract to cover that. Use year would be VERY important for you though to make sure that if you change plans your points could be used up then before expiring. That way you would get all the benefits of being a DVC member with a much smaller buy in. Plus, if it doesn't work out, that contract will probaby be a lot easier to resell if it is under 100 points.

For your other trips during the year, I would definitely consider renting. Sign up for the websites that have expiring points up for rent dirt cheap. You can also look on the rental board here and on Ebay. You can usually find some amazing last minute deals.

If you are very particular about your accomodations (ie needing a certain size or particular resort or view type) then neither option is probably for you. If you are very flexible and don't really care where you stay, you can probably make out better long term doing last minute rentals.

Absolutely correct and exactly what I was going to post.

After you rent if you like the resorts and go a lot you should consider buying your own points. This board has resales at great prices and its half the price of what Disney sells them for.